Now that boot is over I am more confidante with this whole blogging thing but I feel as if i am still learning so much. As soon as I figure out one thing there is something else that pops up to give me grief! I am doing my best and slowly getting the hang of things but am, so, not even close to an expert.

One of the things that I feel fairly confidant about is linking. I seem to have it figured out. Below is a list of my required work from the past two weeks.

I am still wobbly on navigating the system but I am getting better. I keep finding myself comparing myself to a toddler. I am shaky and learning but absorbing so much of what I experience. Lately I have taken to the discover page on my reader. I broadens my horizons to other bloggers and pages I would not have otherwise thought about following. It also brings up posts that are completely random and about something completely asinine but are captivating and interesting and completely out of my normal realm of internet literature. This also seems to be a wonderful tool when searching for opinions. It is easy to search a topic and find arguments for both sides.

I am still struggling a little bit with determining what to blog about. When the blog posts are not guided by some standard for the course I find myself sort of at a stand still for what to post about or when to post. I am sure that as this course proceeds that I will become more confidant about what I post but for now, I guess Ill just gripe around in the dark until I find my way.

I have little to no experience with copy write work. The most I have really been exposed to it are those short few second each year being told about plagiarism when writing papers at school. That being said, I ended up having to do a lot of research to gain just a little bit of knowledge. I am aware that what I gathered is just the tip of the ice burg. To put it simply, I was able to deduce that without copywriting material, anyone can use it without consent from the author. I also learned that there are sites like creative commons that can assist an individual in copy writing their work.

I have never actually thought about copywriting any of my work. Perhaps because I was uneducated about it. I also, however, didn’t really put anything up that I thought should be copy written, I see now that that is not necessarily true and that anything that my mind produces could potentially be protected and used only with my approval.

As I scrolled through my social media accounts just before bed last night, as I do every night, I was struck with an almost sickening realization. Among the videos of cats, memes and the occasional post about someone’s kids doing something “amazing”, was a common theme of apathy and negativity.

Tweets about wanting to die….but in a joking way. (Not funny, by the way). Negative posts about the election, climate change. PETA protesting movies due to alleged animal abuse. Instagram selfies of people complaining about work, school, family, friends.

Every post, tweet, meme or picture that I came across seemed to be pointing out the flaws of a person, of people, of government, religion, environment etc…

I noticed, that the public has three levels of extreme, “Oh My Gosh I LOVE this”, “Oh My Gosh I HATE this” and finally, “I don’t care. At all.”

“Oh My Gosh I LOVE This” is reserved for pictures of cats and babies, dancing puppy videos and the occasional Meme about something totally relatable.

“I don’t care. At all” and “Oh My Gosh I HATE this”, are, however, a completely different story. These apply to all things, including the pictures of animals and babies that are supposed to be in the “LOVE This” category. People, I noticed, were far more likely to give a negative opinion than a positive one. It wasn’t the beautiful story of the family who went to hell and back in order to be able to adopt their foster child and give her a loving home that got the likes, the comments, the reactions, it was the picture of Donald Trump, the posts about Black Lives Matter.

That being said, social media is one of the best tools of our modern day (in my totally humble and completely inexpert opinion). Organizations like BLM, PETA and other various social groups use social media as the tool for activism and have accomplished numerous WONDERFUL things with its help. In this respect social media seems to be the ‘final frontier’. If you can make it big on the Internet, you can do anything.

But I still wonder what makes people more likely to respond to something that they HATE or to something that offends them, than they are to respond to something happy and beautiful, something that they LOVE. If everyone started only reposting this that made them smile, or contemplate, or learn, perhaps the world would be quite different. Who can tell?

Maybe I am being soft, after all I am a millennial, and we know, because it is continuously pounded into our heads, that millennial’s are no good cry babies (Seriously. Get a grip. When can we stop trying to blame everything bad that happens on Millennials?) But I hope to see a shift soon. A shift away from hate and negativity and towards love, acceptance of ALL people for ALL reasons, be it religion, political views, sexuality, race or anything else.

There are too many beautiful things in the world that are being missed because hatred of something else swallows them up. Its time for the internet to be happy again.

This is not a sponsored post. Happy Saturday, my lovely bookaholics! As you know, earlier this month I started writing a novel for NaNoWriMo, which means I have to write a novel at least 50.000 words long before the month ends. And, as I mentioned in my latest post, I don’t want to do a […]

Setting up my blog was time consuming and frustrating and I loved every second of it. I seem to be getting the hang of it, mostly. My current mission is to understand the word press app, which I am currently typing this on. In my humble and nonprofessional opinion, I prefer the app to actually using my computer, so far. This seems far more user friendly and I don’t get lost in a million tabs trying to get back to my dashboard like I do otherwise. User error? Certainly.
Beyond my constant second guessing on which theme I wanted, the set up for my blog went fairly smoothly. I have no real complaints.

My name is Brianna Graner. I am a geography/ GIS major. I am originally from Rockford, Minnesota, a small town where everyone knows everyones business. I have a passion for theatre, particularly musical theatre, and participate in a local theatre company, 4 Community Theatre, each year. I have been with the company since the fifth grade. When my free time is not taken up by acting/ student directing/ singing/ stage managing for a production, I am either reading, obsessing over various shows/ books/ series (this includes but is not limited to Harry Potter, Supernatural, LOTR, Dr. Who…) or doing something, anything, outside in the woods.